daily photo niger

jeweler apprentice

There is an atelier at the zoo with some of the best artisans in the country.

beaucoup de batiks

The zoo has some of the best shopping in town.

nigerasaurus

There are lots more animals, but check out these dinosaur bones! The zoo has three complete dinosaur skeletons--amazing really, any museum in the world would be envious. The bones were all collected in northern Niger and I predict in the future this will be one hot spot for dino-tourism. They have a treasure-trove of undiscovered bones up there. These don't even have labels, sit out in the weather all year, and people can touch them. Don't know how long these treasures will last.

ee-po-po-tom

nigerienne

Our trip to the National Museum starts at the lion cage, which is really the first thing you see when you go in the main gate.

national musée

A number of animals live in the zoo portion of the National Museum. All are native to Niger, all in small old-fashioned cages of the Curious George style. Artisans work in an atelier section of the musée, doing leather work, silver, weaving, and there is a shop of people making lamps out of calabashes. There are samples of local housing, tuareg tents, huts, houses made of local bricks. And most interestingly, there are a number of people who live at the musée. Like a village within the zoo. This week, we'll tour the National Musée.

for ana

I wanted to take this picture with my neice Ana when she was here--her real name is Anais. But Niamey is the kind of town that just because you pass a place once doesn't mean you'll ever run across it again, the streets are not exactly laid out in a grid. So this one is for my petite soeur, my little sister, as she's called here, which I think sounds much better than my husband's cousin's daughter.

village women

early mangos

Niger has four seasons. The wet hot season when it rains, June through August; the mini-hot season, wow does it get hot in September-October; the cool hot season, you might need a long-sleeve t-shirt in the mornings, warm during the day, really perfect weather, like Palm Springs from November through February; and the hot, hot season, March, April, May. One of the good things about the hot, hot season: mangos.

henna hands

Ever since I saw Amina's henna tattoo, I've wanted to have mine done. Amina was nice enough to drive me out to the tattoo artist's place so I could arrange to have her come to do henna tattoos for everyone at work. Here is my hand, fresh out of the smoke that sets the ink. Lasts a week or so, if I don't go in the pool. (More pictures of the process on my place2place site.)